In this Institutional Center Core Grant to Support Neuroscience Research we propose to establish three Core facilities. These facilities will provide necessary resources and will perform required services that are impractical for individual laboratories to provide on their own. They consist of a Multiphoton Imaging/Electrophysiology Core, an Embryonic Stem Cell Engineering Core, and a Monoclonal Antibody Core. The experimental opportunities and technical services to be offered by these Cores complement and do not duplicate existing Core facilities available to NINDS-funded investigators at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (JHU SOM). The use of these Core facilities will greatly benefit the NINDS funded research programs of the ten primary investigators who constitute the primary investigators of this Center, and they will also be an important resource for all other NINDS-funded investigators at JHU SOM. Nine of the Center's ten primary investigators are members of the Department of Neuroscience, and the remaining investigator is a member of the Department of Neurology. The research programs of the Center's primary investigators address unresolved issues in the areas of neural development, regulation of synaptic structure and function, ion channel physiology and neurotransmitter transporter function, and activity dependent regulation of gene expression. The Specific Aims of these primary investigator's NINDS research programs address critical clinical issues, including the developmental basis of neurological disorders, the promotion of neuronal regeneration folowing injury or degeneration, and the origin of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's Dementia and ALS. The Center's Primary Investigators define a highly interactive group with a strong history of seamless collaborative research efforts. It is the primary goal of this Center to provide these investigators, and all other NINDS-funded investigators at JHU SOM with core facilities that are not currently available in order to augment their existing research programs.